GOP Congressman: Obama 'Wants Us to Go Off the Cliff' to Benefit Pelosi

18 Dec 2012

Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun told Breitbart News on Tuesday that he thinks President Barack Obama is using the ongoing fiscal cliff fight as political leverage to try to land Nancy Pelosi back in the House Speaker’s office in 2014. Pelosi lost the Speaker’s gavel in 2010 when conservatives in the tea party movement rose up and elected 84 freshman Republicans.

When asked if thinks Obama is more interested in raising taxes on Americans or in forcing Republicans to break from their principles, Broun told said he thinks Obama is interested in both.

“Much of this has to do with the 2014 congressional election,” Broun said in an interview on Capitol Hill. “I think he’d like to see Nancy Pelosi back in the speakership. I think he will do anything possible that he can do to try to make that happen.”

“The reality is that the president wants us to go off the cliff,” Broun said. “There’s no question in my mind about that. He is going to raise taxes on all Americans even the lowest paid workers. His policies are hurting those that he claims he supports the most and those are poor people and the middle class. But, it’s going to hurt the middle class. And it’s going to hurt poor people and hurt senior citizens. I want to protect everybody. That gets the economy the economy going – and [I want to] start dealing with the debt. That’s the important thing. That’s the fiscal cliff we’re facing, not the one on January 1. We’re headed toward an economic collapse of America if we don’t stop the outrageous spending in Washington.”

House Speaker John Boehner caved on GOP principles several times over the past few weeks. First, he reportedly offered to Obama in secret meetings that he’d abandon his principles on tax hikes. Next, Boehner reportedly offered to fork over all Republican leverage over the debt ceiling for the next whole year until early 2014.

Most recently, Boehner has offered up what he calls his “plan B.” Boehner’s “plan B” is a rehashed version of Pelosi’s May 2012 tax hike plan for all persons making more than $1 million per year.

Democrats and the White House have rejected each of Boehner’s caves thus far, as they believe Boehner didn’t go far enough.

Broun told Breitbart News that he thinks Republican leaders like Boehner currently negotiating with Obama on the fiscal cliff deal “are doing everything that they can within their philosophy of trying to make a deal.”

But, Broun added, those efforts are futile because “the president is not coming to the table.”

Broun disagrees with Boehner’s latest strategy on the “plan B” tax hike move. “I don’t want to see taxes go up on anybody,” Broun said. “I think it would be a mistake to have tax rates go up on anyone. The Speaker says it’s all going to go up anyway January 1 if we don’t do something so the question is ‘should we pass something that protects as many Americans as possible?’ We’ve already passed that. We already passed a bill in the House with bipartisan support that puts in place the current tax policies permanently for everybody. It would also deal with the sequester. I’d like to see that bill come back to the floor – with the combination of the two bills – to come back to the floor for us to vote on.”